October 17, 2008 -- According to a new study by BT’s U.S. based Professional Services unit, nearly half of all IT organizations worldwide have implemented VoIP. The study was carried out in August 2008, with companies from 267 countries involved. Exactly 48% companies are VoIP-equipped this year, compared to 31% last year and 27% in 2005. The increase is exponential, and nearing totality is not for far away, but there are oppositions to VoIP adoption is many companies, for many reasons, including reliability, investment and security. The proof of a real return on investment from VoIP implementation remains the main challenge.
REPORT HIGHLIGHTS
- The most frequent strategy that IT organizations pursue when implementing VoIP is to gradually replace the telephony infrastructure with a VoIP network. Replacing PBXs as they reach end of life—either with IP PBXs or VoIP products—is the primary alternative strategy.
- A slight majority (51 percent) of respondents expect to spend more on VoIP this year than last, and more than two-thirds expect to spend even more in 2009.
- The percentage of IT organizations that have already implemented a functioning VoIP network jumped from 31 percent in 2007 to 48 percent this year. Another 20 percent of organizations are in the process of implementing a VoIP network, and 71 percent expect their VoIP strategies to be fully implemented within two years.
- In this year’s survey, as well as in 2005 and 2007, network reliability, voice quality and security were the three most important criteria when selecting a VoIP solution.
- The three most important objectives when implementing VoIP as a PSTN replacement are increasing network flexibility, simplifying the network infrastructure and increasing collaboration through improved communications.
- Twenty-seven percent of respondents say their biggest hurdle to overcome when replacing the PSTN with a VoIP solution is quantifying and demonstrating ROI, the most commonly selected challenge since 2005.
- Moving to an IP trunk connection correlates closely with implementing a VoIP solution. Unified messaging also has close links with VoIP implementations.
While it has been a long time coming, voice over IP (VoIP), with its promise of lower costs and voice and data application integration, has nearly reached the halfway penetration mark in enterprises’ communications infrastructures. Furthermore, implementation and spending plans indicate that this trend should only accelerate in the years ahead. However, many paths to VoIP remain available. Moving down the best path will rest on multiple considerations, including:
- The return on investment in VoIP must clearly be demonstrable, both in potential cost reductions and increases in revenue. Pay particular attention to opportunities for increased productivity through collaboration that can be enabled by VoIP. Though more difficult to quantify, they may be the difference between a positive and negative ROI projection.
- Cost is a critical factor when building a VoIP business case, but other criteria must take higher precedence when evaluating various implementation strategies and solutions. Make sure you understand what your top requirements are, be they network reliability, voice quality or security, before committing to a strategy. If you’re just starting down the road, a third-party consultant with years of experience can shorten this process and help achieve better results.
- Look for opportunities to leverage VoIP and other complementary technologies, such as IP trunking and unified messaging. Often these can make huge differences in either network performance or the ability to roll out new applications. Both will be visible to end users, and thus will increase satisfaction with the IT organization.
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